One By One
by Caelhir
Summary: Elrond assigns Glorfindel a daunting task that will test his strength, wits, and very sanity. Will Glorfindel live to see it done?
1. Sunday

Summary: Glorfindel is given a daunting task by Lord Elrond. Will he survive to see the other side of it?

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

**Chapter One: Sunday**

_in which Glorfindel is assigned his mission by Lord Elrond of Rivendell._

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Elrond paced around and around his study, trying desperately to think of a solution to his ever-pressing problem. Again and again, he came up with possibilities, then just as quickly rejected them.

_Too young... too old... too kind... too strict... still being taken care of for trauma from the last time... moved to Lothlorien afterwards..._

Elrond sighed. There was no way he would be able to convince any elf within Middle Earth to look after his young sons, Elrohir and Elladan for a whole week! The last time h had left them under the care of a baby sitter, they had set her on fire ("By accident!" they insisted) and sent her screaming form the room when they had thrown spiders on her head from high on a wardrobe they had climbed. After that story head spread, there was not a single elf who disappeared when word got out that Elrond was searching for a care taker for his sons.

This time, he needed a sitter because he was headed to the Grey Havens tomorrow on diplomatic business that he needed to discuss with Círdan the Shipwright. Celebrían would normally look after their sons, but she had been long overdue for a visit to her parents in Lorien, and so, both of the twins' parents would be away. She was leaving tomorrow as well.

Erestor was more than capable of running Imladris in Elrond's absence, but after he had tripped backwards down a flight of stairs over a pile of books conveniently placed by the twins, he outright refused to have anything to do with their upbringing.

"Bring them to me when they are old enough to read," was all he had said before storming from the room after the aforementioned incident had taken place.

Elrond thought for another moment before another possibility entered his mind, one he had not even smiled as he though about it; the more he thought, the more he knew it was perfect.

Without a backwards glance, he set off to find Glorfindel.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Glorfindel sat under the shade of an apple tree, long legs stretched out in front of him. He held an apple in his hand, one he had picked about three hours ago but hand't had the energy to actually eat. It was hot today. Hot, hot, hot. The sun sone strongly, and Glorfindel was only outside because the twin demons that Elrond had fathered were inside.

He didn't know what it was about him that the twins liked, but they plagued him at every step he took, tripping him in corridors, dropping books on his head as he passed under balconies (a habit which had lead Glorfindel to start skirting balconies and checking them before he continued on his way), and being downright irritating. Erestor, laughing as Glorfindel vented his frustration, had said only that the two small children admired him. Glorfindel had grumbled himself into silence, and decided that until they were old enough to swing a sword, he would avoid the two "demon children," as he and Erestor had termed them, all together.

Glorfindel closed his eyes, letting the heat overcome his senses and allowing his mind to slip into daydreams, one involving him fighting a pink dragon, and another where Elrond stood over him wearing nothing but a frilly dress and curls in his hair.

"Glorfindel. Glorfindel! Glorfindel!"

Glorfindel jumped and snapped his eyes open.

There was Elrond, but he was wearing his usual attire, definitely not a dress, though Glorfindel's cheeks heated slightly and he snickered to himself as Elrond raised an eyebrow at him, but made no comment.

"Come with me, Glorfindel. I need to speak with you."

Glorfindel sobered as the elf lord turned and walked away back into the relatively cool interior of the House. What had he done now?

Glorfindel sighed and hauled himself reluctantly to his feet, stretching as he ran his mind over his actions of the past few days, searching for anything that would have gotten him in trouble. He had come in from a long patrol three days ago, and had been either sleeping or eating since then, apart from an occasional drink with Erestor. Perhaps Elrond was angry at them for drinking an entire bottle of Dorwinion from Greenwood two nights ago? They had received their punishments, Glorfindel could assure Elrond. The hangovers they had earned with still made him close his eyes and shiver.

But when Glorfindel reached Elrond's study, he found no sign of Erestor. Elrond sat in his chair behind his desk, and motioned for Glorfindel to close the door and take a seat. Glorfindel did so.

"Well, Glorfindel," Elrond said in a buisness-like tone, "You may have heard that I am going to the Grey Havens tomorrow." When Glorfindel nodded, he continued.

"It turns out that Celebrían's visit to Lothlorien also falls upon tomorrow, Monday, and she will be gone for the remainder of this week as well."

Glorfindel's eyes had filled with suspicion as though he had an inkling of where this conversation was headed, but he remained quiet.

"As both Celebrían and I will be away, there is a service I require of you in my absence."

Glorfindel raised an eyebrow.

"If it doesn't involve drinking, eating or sleeping..."

Elrond glared the other elf into silence.

"It involves all three. It just won't be only your eating, drinking and sleeping you'll be looking after."

At this statement, Glorfindel half rose out of his chair, shaking his head as he realized what Elrond was asking him to do.

"No, no no, no, _no!_"

Elrond pointed at Glorfindel to sit. Glorfindel flopped back into his chair, a look of horror on his face as Elrond continued.

"I am asking you if you will look after my sons while the two of us are away." Forestalling Glorfindel's protest with a hand raised, he went on. "If you accept, I will give you the next week to recov- ah, relax and rest, as well as two bottles of Dorwinion to do with whatever you like."

Glorfindel had missed Elrond's slip of the tongue, but still regarded the elf lord as though he had lost his mind. Finally, the golden-haired elf seemed to find his tongue.

"Watch your sons? For a week? Two bottles?"

Elrond nodded.

"No. I'll never survive it."

Elrond narrowed his eyes. "Why do you say that?"

Glorfindel laughed sardonically.

"Do you remember when they dropped three volumes of trade histories on my head? Or when they laced my meal with sneezing powder so that I couldn't speak for sneezing? I thought my eyes would fall from my head!" Ignoring Elrond's attempts to break in, Glorfindel pressed on. "There was also the occasion that I recall in which they set my bed on fire, and the time when they invented a new game which involved stealing all of my clothing and forcing me to run about the house naked-"

"All right, all right!" Elrond said heavily, closing his eyes and wincing at the memories those incidents brought forth. "Is there any way at all to get you to do this for me?"

Glorfindel regarded Elrond shrewdly, and Elrond felt a flash of apprehension, remembered Glorfindel's wit and sense of humor. Slightly apprehensively, he leaned forward to listen to the other's proposition.

"If I babysit for your sons for one week, you have to curl your hair and wear a dress for an entire day."

"Done!" Elrond clapped a hand over his mouth as he realized what he had just agreed to. He had been to preoccupied with the fact that he had finally found a care taker for Elrohir and Elladan that he had rather forgotten to listen to the rest of Glorfindel's sentence.

Glorfindel's face split into an evil grin. "Very well," he said. "Three bottles of Dorwinion– yes three, I think you know perfectly well why I deserve a third– a week off, and you have to wear a dress." He extended a hand to shake Elrond's.

Weakly, Elrond shook, telling himself that one day was a small price to pay for Glorfindel's voluntary babysitting. He was lucky that Glorfindel had not demanded a week!

"Let's go find them," Elrond said wearily. Glorfindel beamed.

/\/\/\/\/\/\

"That's mine!"

"Mine, stupid!"

"Give it back!"

"No! It's mine!"

"Mine!"

"Mine!"

The two elflings sat on the floor, one hugging a stuffed horse to his small chest while the other scrabbled for it. Both shouted the whole time. The room in which they sat was an absolute mess. When Elrond and Celebrían had first had the twins, they had organized this room into two parts, one spot for each other the twins' toys and games. Now, however, it was as though the bins and boxes had exploded onto the floor, spewing their contents everywhere. The two elflings, not taller than a grown elf's hip, shouted at each other right smack in the middle of it.

Glorfindel began to have serious doubts as he stepped into the room. Elrond shot him a look, but said nothing as he called to his sons.

"Boys, boys!"

The twin sons of Elrond looked up, eyes wide at the sight of their father and Glorfindel standing there very imposingly. Elrond continued in a softer voice.

"Elrohir, Elladan, you know Glorfindel."

The twin's identical guilty looks confirmed Elrond's words.

"Your mother and I are leaving Rivendell for a while, and he will be looking after you for that time."

The twins exchanged glances, but still said nothing. Glorfindel cold swear that they were speaking in their heads to each other.

"Now you be good, and come with me to say good bye to your mother. She's leaving early tomorrow."

The twins jumped up and followed their father out of the room. On their way out, one of them, Elrohir, Glorfindel thought, looked back and shot him such an evil and calculating look that Glorfindel honestly felt his very core shake with trepidation at what the two little demons had in store for him.


	2. Monday

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

**Chapter Two: Monday**

_in which young Elrohir and Elladan prepare a welcome gift for Glorfindel, and Glorfindel receives instruction on the care and keeping of children._

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"Perfect!"

The child's squeal was instantly cut off when his identical counterpart pushed him down.

"Quiet, stupid, or he'll hear us!"

The child on the ground pouted at his brother, though a slightly apologetic look entered his blue eyes. His brother reached down and extended a small hand, pulling him to his feet. Elrohir grinned at his brother as Elladan rose to his feet.

"Ga-lor-uh-fun-dull will be so surprised," the boy said enthusiastically. He was having more difficulty than Elladan was having to fit Glorfindel's name in his mouth comfortably. It was quite a long name, after all! Elladan nodded eagerly in accord.

"He will! It's perfect! But," he said doubtfully, "when should we do it? Tonight?"

"Yes," said Elrohir slyly, a smile lighting his face. "It will be the perfect you're-our-new-babysitter present!"

Elladan still looked slightly doubtful. "But remember what happened last time we did something like this? Ada was so angry, and we never saw that nice lady again! She gave us cookies..." he trailed away in wistful memory.

"She was loud," said Elrohir bluntly, twisting a short lock of brown hair in his small fingers, "and I don't think she liked us."

"She liked me," Elladan said sulkily, "and she didn't like you because you set her dress on fire!"

"It was an accident!"

Elladan murmured softly, "She gave us cookies."

Elrohir rolled his eyes and huffed loudly as Elladan looked again at the product of their hard work.

"Are you sure this will work?" he asked again.

"Of course it will work," Elrohir replied. "Now come on! We have to go say goodbye to Ada. He said he was leaving in fifteen minutes!"

Neither elfling knew that "fifteen minutes" had been two hours ago at dawn, yet Elrond was patiently finishing up writing out instructions for the still-sleeping guardian, Glorfindel. The elflings scampered out of the play room and down the hall to their father's office, not pausing to knock before they burst through the door.

Elrond scarcely looked up as the twin elflings scampered through the door, eyes bright and smiles firmly in place.

"Hello, boys," Elrond said. "I'll be leaving right after I finish this up. It's instructions for Glorfindel on how to best take care of you while I'm away."

"He won't need those!" cried Elrohir. "We'll tell him everything he needs to know about us!"

Elladan nodded vigorously, adding, "And we'll behave, even! We'll be good! Will we get cookies if we're good?"

Elrond sighed. If Elrohir was promising the twins would behave, he pitied Glorfindel slightly. Only slightly, though, because Elrond had not yet forgotten about his own part of the bargain. He did not look forward to wearing that dress.

Elrond finished the instructions and slipped them into an envelope lying on his desk. Standing, he came around his desk and nearly tripped over Elladan whose bottom was sticking out from under Elrond's desk. He was shouting at his brother now.

"Give that back, Elrohir, give that back!"

Elrohir's giggles could be heard clearly as the other elfling wiggled out of the other side of the desk and took off through the door, Elladan's shoe in his hand. Elladan struggled to extract himself from the desk and after a moment, he leapt up as well and took off after the other son of Elrond.

Elrond himself sighed. It was a miracle that Glorfindel had managed to stay asleep throughout all of this.

Hastily making his way to Glorfindel's room, or "the cave," as many around Imladris knew it, Elrond slipped the envelope under the door and went to say good bye to his sons, whose shrieks and laughs could be faintly heard from somewhere upstairs. A slight thumping noise, and he realized what the elflings were doing.

"ELLADAN! ELROHIR!"

Elrond tore off to get his sons. A thousand times he had told them not to jump on his and Celebrian's bed, a thousand times!

/\/\/\/\/\/\

Glorfindel blinked, trying to piece together what exactly had woken him. He thought he had heard shouting, but shrugged tiredly when his muddled brain told him it was too tired to care. His eyes slipped closed again. It was a Monday, a perfect day to sleep in...

_Monday?_

Glorfindel shot upright. Today was the first day he would have to watch those twin demons of Elrond's, and Glorfindel was beginning to have serious doubts as he realized what it was that had awoken him.

Elrond. Elrond shouting. Shouting at the twin demons. Glorfindel groaned and flung an arm over his eyes, wishing he could sink into his bed and never come out. To hide from the world... that was where his comfort was...

Glorfindel sighed and hauled himself out of bed. He was warrior, and warriors did not sit around dreading battle! Or at least, Glorfindel tried to convince himself of that, though he knew it was not completely true.

He pulled on his clothes as he thought about ways to keep his sanity over the next week.

Monday... that meant that at sundown today, when the twins went to bed, Glorfindel's first day as Elrond's zoo-keeper would be over. However, Glorfindel had no way of knowing that the twins had no intentions of going to bed at sundown.

Sighing, Glorfindel walked over to his door to find an envelope with his name printed in Elrond's neat, precise writing on the front. Picking it up, he pulled open his door and walked out reading the words on the letter inside.

He left his door open, as he usually did. No one went in there anyways. This time however, Glorfindel was wrong. Two small children slipped into the elf's room as he left, eyes skimming the letter, too absorbed to notice the two little elves.

Once inside, Elladan pulled a bag out of his pocket. Elrohir grinned and held out his hand. Elladan dumped the contents of the bag into his brother's hand. Elrohir squealed and ran over to Glorfindel's bed. Pulling back the covers, Elrohir dumped the unconscious frogs into the dent of the mattress that indicated where Glorfindel slept each night.

Elrohir and Elladan celebrated their victory as they scampered out of the room. Their Ada didn't know that they knew how to make the magic-knock-out potion! They had watched silently from a corner as Elrond had put away his healing books, and when the room was empty, the twins had copied the recipe, creating the perfect potion.

Elladan and Elrohir were a force not to be reckoned with. They were small, but together, they were downright dangerous!

/\/\/\/\

_Glorfindel-_

_In this letter, I will leave you all the instructions you will need to care for Elrohir and Elladan. In this letter I will include eating, sleeping and everything in between. I pray your week goes well; I understand they they can be a bit trying at times-_

"I'll say!"

"Shut up, Erestor."

_-at times, but they really can be sweet, and there is a trick to it all that I'll mention later on._

_Elrohir and Elladan function as a single being. They do everything together, from innocent games of children to devious pranks and tricks. Elrohir is generally the tactician while Elladan is the materials manager. Elrohir plans his "attack" and ELladan pulls together the things they need. They set up the trick and run for cover, to watch safely from a distance while the unsuspecting victim walks into a stack of buckets covered in honey, of whatever it was that they did to you-_

"I remember that! Dear Valar, that was hilarious!"

"Stuff it, Erestor."

_-did to you last time I left them with a caregiver._

_For breakfast, Elrohir and Elladan enjoy fruit and oatmeal for breakfast, sprinkled lightly with brown sugar. The head cook should be able to help you, but she won't cook anything for the boys because of the time that they laced her flour with a highly effective hallucinogen._

_After breakfast, the boys love going outside for playtime in the main garden or the courtyard. Please try to keep them out of the bushes and trees; they do rather seem to love hiding._

_When you come inside, the boys will try to get you to let them jump on my and Celebrian's bed. DO NOT LET THEM! Allow them to play quietly in the nursery with the plethora-_

"What does that even mean?"

"It means a nearly-unending quantity of something. Dear Valar, I can tell you're the warrior and not the thinker!"

"Be quiet, Erestor."

_-plethora of toys and games Celebrian and I have provided for them. They should be able to find enough to do until lunch._

_For lunch, the twins prefer to have anything ranging from meat to crayons, and so will give you an idea of what they would like. However, there are a few things to keep in mind._

_Elrohir hates peas, and Elladan hates carrots. Elrohir loves to eat plums, and Elladan prefers to throw them at the walls. Elrohir is allergic to tomatoes, and Elladan likes to slip them into his brother's food. Elladan, however, is allergic to grapes, and Elrohir delights in putting them into Elladan's lunch. Elladan dislikes bread, but will eat it if he is prodded. Elrohir will not eat potatoes no matter what. Corn is a strong dislike of both of the boys, and they both love to eat the cook's freshly baked tarts. Elrohir hates strawberries and Elladan hates blueberries. Please try to avoid disaster._

"Oh, now this will be fun! I think I'll join you for lunch–"

"Shut the hell up, Erestor."

_After lunch, try to put them down for their afternoon nap. They are getting older and soon will not need a nap, but I hope you can still get them to lie down for a few hours. If they will not cooperate, inform them that they have to be quiet for twenty minutes (during which you may relax, read, or whatever it you can do in twenty minutes) and that you will come back at the end to get them. This usually quiets them down._

_For dinner, the twins will never eat the same thing. Elladan will eat potatoes and meat, but Elrohir will not eat potatoes. Elrohir will eat beans if asked nicely and Elladan will refuse them. Tell him he will grow wings if he eats them, if you must. Elrohir will undoubtedly try to tell Elladan that peas are spider eggs so that Elrohir can have them all to himself, but don't let them get into a pea-fight. The resulting mess will be terrible to clean up._

_After dinner, the twins are to go to bed. They will ask for a few tales, so search your mind for something to interest them. Please try not to pick battles or violence-_

"See, even he knows you are obsessed with your own deeds in battle!"

"Shut your gob, Erestor."

_-violence, as you will find your bed to be occupied by more than yourself._

_"How often does that happen, I wonder?"_

"I swear to the Valar, Erestor, if you don't shut it..."

_Follow these instructions carefully, and all will go reasonably well. Best of luck, and I hope to find you alive and well in one week's time._

_Very best of luck to you,_

_Elrond_

Glorfindel sighed. One _very_ long week's time.

/\/\/\/\/\

Glorfindel flopped into a chair outside the twin's bedroom, running a hand over his eyes. How on earth could those two beasts create so much mayhem? It had started with breakfast and had steadily gone downhill from there.

Glorfindel had gone to the kitchen to prepare the twins' food. The cook had indeed helped him. Together they had made oatmeal with the appropriate toppings, keeping in mind the twins' likes and , when it had come time to serve the twins, they could not be found anywhere. The cook had flat out refused to hunt them down, so Glorfindel set off in search of the boys. Finding them near his room (a fact which set off a twinge of panic in his mind), Glorfindel had herded them to the kitchen to eat.

Once there, the twins had begun an endless stream of "that's not how Nana makes it," "not so much milk!" "I don't even want oatmeal!" and "are you sure you're supposed to look after us?" Glorfindel had not had the opportunity to answer, given the unending dialogue between the children.

After the twins had finally finished their breakfast, which had included a bent spoon, a broken bowl and oatmeal upended on Elrohir's head, Glorfindel had taken them to their playroom, where shouts and yelling now echoed off of the walls. Glorfindel sat outside in a chair. His head was already spinning.

A week. A whole week. Glorfindel swore under his breath, unaware of the silence that had descended moments before.

Two delighted voices repeated the words Glorfindel had just uttered. Glorfindel snapped his head up in horror, turing to find Elrohir and Elladan beaming at him as they said the words once again. Glorfindel hastily 'shushed' them.

"No no no! Don't say that! That's, uh, not proper elvish, and your father will be upset to hear you say that!"

The twin's grins grew wider, if anything. Glorfindel groaned. On top of everything else, he had six days to teach two children, whose father was the greatest elven lord of the day, and perhaps history itself, not to swear.

_Great._

/\/\/\/\

Lunchtime came and went without too much of a fuss, the only trip-up being Elladan dumping his carrots on top of Elrohir, who shrieked and chucked his plate of peas at his brother. Needless to say, it had erupted into a full food fight. Erestor had walked into the kitchen, laughed, and walked out at the sight of Glorfindel holding one twin in each hand at arm's length, all three covered head-to-toe in food.

After Glorfindel had cleaned up the two boys, he had laid them down for their afternoon nap, as instructed. However, Elrohir and Elladan seemed to be more interested in climbing their furniture than sleeping. Glorfindel had been forced to jump under a falling wardrobe to push Elrohir, who had pulled it over almost on top of himself, out of the way. This meant that the wardrobe had fallen on top of Glorfindel instead.

Aching and sore, Glorfindel had taken the twin outside to play, coming to two unhappy conclusions as he did so: 1) The twins would no longer be taking naps, and 2) he was going to be extremely sore tomorrow.

/\/\/\/\

Finally, finally, it was bedtime. Glorfindel rejoiced silently as he helped Elrohir and Elladan into their pajamas and into bed. As he read them their bedtime stories, he thought of his soft bed and warm blankets waiting for him. Tucking the twins in and heading down the hall, Glorfindel ran straight into Erestor, who was lounging outside of Glorfindel's bedroom.

"So," Erestor drawled. "First day: tell me how it went."

Glorfindel pushed past him, grumbling, "Wonderful."

Erestor chuckled and followed Glorfindel into his room, where Glorfindel had already stripped and changed into his nighttime attire. In short, Glorfindel was naked with nothing but a blanket tied around his hips. Erestor smirked at the sight of the bedraggled elf.

"Those two, Erestor," he said, gesturing vaguely in the direction of the twins' room, "I'm telling you. They will end up killing me before this week is over. Did you hear what happened outside?"

At Erestor's negative shake of the head, Glorfindel elaborated.

"We walked outside in the garden so that they could play. Elrohir was antsy and decided to climb a tree. Well, Elladan followed him as usual. Both of them got up all right, but like cats, once up they couldn't get back– stop laughing, Erestor!"

For Erestor had burst out laughing at the place this story was leading.

"Anyways," Glorfindel continued heatedly, "I had to climb up the tree as well. Once I got up there, Elrohir and Elladan miraculously figured out how to get back down, and scampered down like squirrels. Now I'm stuck up a tree and the twin demons are heading off at speed towards the fountain in the middle of the garden.

"Once I got down, which involved falling, the two of them had thoroughly gotten soaked and had managed to throw frogs everywhere." Glorfindel sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Erestor smirked widely but said nothing as Glorfindel slid into his bed.

A second later, he had shot out of the bed, yelping like a startled dog. Five frogs followed Glorfindel out of the bed, shooting around like skittles.

Erestor left the room howling with laughter at the sound of Glorfindel trying to catch and remove the frogs.

As Glorfindel slid back into bed, carefully checking every inch of it for any more animals, he thought, _five days._

Five more days.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\


	3. Tuesday

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

**Chapter Three: Tuesday**

_in which Elrohir and Elladan discover their favorite food and Glorfindel receives an impromptu change to his appearance._

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

In the silence of the dawn, the valley of Imladris shone like an emerald in the newly-risen sun. Flowers and trees sparkled with dew, and the river flashed like a jumping fish.

However, there were no elves awake at this time to witness the beautiful sights. They were all tucked up in their beds, warm and cozy, still safe in their dreams.

Except for two...

"Is he still asleep?"

"Yes, now come on!"

"Are you sure this is the right one? I thought this was blue–"

"This one is the right! Now hurry, the sun is up!"

The two elflings finished fiddling with the bottle that sat on the sink in Glorfindel's bathroom and scampered out of the golden-haired elf's room and back into their own rooms as fast as they possibly could. They leapt back into their beds and pulled the covers up over their heads, pretending to be asleep.

Gradually, the sounds of movement began to filter through the silence that the night had left in its wake. Elrohir and Elladan giggled as they heard Glorfindel coming to their room. The elflings hoped that he had taken a bath first, but he didn't sound nearly angry enough.

Sure enough, a relatively sane-looking Glorfindel strode in through the door.

"Good morning, Twin One and Twin Two!" he said cheerfully, calling the twins by a new set of names he had thought of last night.

The twins, who had been putting up a strong pretense of faking sleep, shot upright as they pondered these new names.

"Who's Twin One?" Elladan asked Glorfindel curiously.

"It's me," said Elrohir, "because I'm older than you!"

"Nuh-uh!" said Elladan indignantly. "I'm older than you!"

Elrohir leapt at Elladan, knocking him off of his bed onto the thickly-carpeted floor. Elrond and Celebrían had made a good investment when they had that put in, Glorfindel thought wryly as he went to separate the furiously brawling twins, ignoring their furious cries of "I'm older than you!" and "I was born first!"

"All right, all right!" Glorfindel shouted, pulling them apart and holding them at arms length from each other. "It's time for breakfast!"

The boys' eyes shone. "Food?"

"Yes, food, but not until you get dressed, and then– hey!"

The twins had shot out from either side of Glorfindel, causing him to dive on the ground trying to catch one of them. They giggled maliciously as they sped out of the room.

Glorfindel sighed as he clambered to his feet and took off after the twins, ignoring a furiously laughing Erestor who stood outside in the hallway. It was the bright, beautiful dawn to another terribly trying day.

/\/\/\/\

Elrohir and Elladan, meanwhile, had made tracks straight to the kitchen, which they had found empty. It was still early after all.

They looked around at the plethora of food al around them. Their eyes met.

"Elrohir," said Elladan slyly, "there's no one here to tell us not to eat whatever we want!"

"I know!" said Elrohir excitedly. "I want that stuff Gal-or-fund-dull put on our oatmeal yesterday, the really yummy sweet stuff!"

Elladan's eyes lit up. "I see it, I see it!"

He moved forwards and, with a bit of reaching, seized a jar full of white crystals. Elrohir cheered.

"Hooray! Let's have some now!"

Elladan pulled the top off and they stuck their fingers into the pure sugar. Licking them tentatively, their eyes met again.

"Perfect."

"Perfect," Elladan echoed. "More?"

"Yes please!"

And so, the twins helped themselves to a breakfast comprised of what amounted to eight handfuls of sugar each while Glorfindel ran all about Imladris, searching high and low for two increasingly energetic troublemakers.

/\/\/\/\

"Wheeeeeeeeeee!"

Glorfindel heard it first. He was speaking to Erestor, harried and exhausted after searching all over the place for the elusive One and Two. They had rounded a corner when Glorfindel had halted. He thought he heard something, and sure enough, the sound was repeated.

"Yaaaaaahhhhhhh!"

Glorfindel panicked. Throwing a glance at Erestor, who was collapsing in another fit of helpless laughter agains the wall, Glorfindel headed away to the source of the noise: the play room.

Glorfindel skidded into the room, jaw dropping at the sight that met his eyes.

The floor was strewn with books, papers, balls, animals, toy swords, crayons, two tiny chairs, a play-table, clothes, shoes, socks, and what looked to be the rest of the contents of the twins' toy-drawers.

However, this sight was nothing to what happened to Glorfindel's heart when he saw where the twins were and what it was exactly that they were doing.

Elrohir and Elladan were on top of their wardrobe, squealing and shrieking with copious amounts of glee as they rocked the furniture back and forth. Elrohir was wearing a black sock on his head (Glorfindel thought that it looked suspiciously like one of Erestor's own socks, but he couldn't be entirely sure) and was screaming at Elladan, who was wearing what appeared to be a pair of underpants on his head, to "not crash the ship" because there were "Pirates ahead!"

And then, just as Elladan did his best not to crash their ship, the "ship" itself began to topple slowly over. Glorfindel yelped and shot forwards, catching the twins just in time. The wardrobe thunked to the floor, not damaged at all.

Glorfindel buried his head in his outstretched arms, but before his could so much as sigh, the twins had leapt to their feet, not put off at all by their near-death experience.

"_CanwegooutsideGlorfindel?_"

Glorfindel looked up, slightly wary.

"Err...What?"

The twins giggled and danced in place. Glorfindel sat up slowly, his worry mounting slightly. The twins were energetic, yes, but this... this was not normal.

"_Pleasewewannagooutsidecuzit'snicetoday!_"

This time, Glorfindel caught the drift of Elrohir's question.

"Yes," he began, "but what–?"

The twins needed no more permission than that. Squealing with glee, they shot out of the door faster than Glorfindel could track.

Once he found them outside, Glorfindel almost wished he hadn't. The twins seemed to have figured out that the flowers were not guarded by any warriors, and so, they were sitting in the middle of the flower bed.

Glorfindel gulped. He was terribly, violently, horribly allergic to flowers, quite an embarrassing affliction for the chief of the House of the Golden Flower of Godolin, no? Dreading what was awaiting him that evening when his allergies erupted, he took a breath, and holding it, walked into the middle of the flower bed.

"Cob on, Elrohir, Elladad. You deed do ged oud of there," he said with difficult, still holding his breath. The twin elflings looked up at him curiously, still bouncing up and down slightly, their sugar-induced frenzy not quite worn off yet.

"Why?"

Glorfindel mentally screamed in frustration. If there was one thing he hated more than babysitting the infernal duo, it was the question "why?" He hated being questioned, but they were only elflings. They didn't know that.

He picked up the two children and plopped them on the ground outside of the flowerbed.

"Because– achoo!– dammit–"

But before he could finish, Elrohir had a maniacal gleam in his eyes.

"What's 'dammit,' Gal-or-a-fun-dull?" he asked sweetly.

Glorfindel groaned.

/\/\/\/\

Finally, finally, the twins' sugar-high had dropped off into a lazy lull, resulting in them finally falling asleep on the floor of their room. Glorfindel moved them to their beds and went to take a shower. He could still feel pollen from those flowers.

Stepping out of his bathroom once he was done, he stepped out onto his balcony, still naked, of course. His room faced the woods in the back of Imladris, the only balcony, in fact, to do so, and so his nakedness wouldn't bother anyone.

He closed his eyes and enjoyed the wind whipping around him. He opened his eyes and pulled his red hair away from his face.

Wait. _Red_ hair?

Glorfindel looked down to see cherry-red tresses where his normally brightly blonde ones should be. He stared for a full minute before bellowing with rage and racing inside to look in a mirror.

"_No_..."

Sure enough, his head was topped by long, cherry-red hair. He gaped at his reflection. What on earth? What on earth? What had happened to him?

He heard a giggle, and whipped about to see two sets of blue eyes at his door. When they caught him looking, they vanished, little feet pattering away down the hall, two sets of giggling becoming fainter as they went.

Glorfindel pulled on his clothes very slowly, after having showered three more times in a vain attempt to rid his hair of the dye, not at all wanting to leave his room ever again. But he knew he had an obligation to take care for the twins, and so, he pulled open the door of his room.

Erestor was passing by, and the moment Glorfindel saw him, he knew it was too late to pull back into his room and wait until the studious elf had passed.

Erestor threw him a passing glance, speaking a casual greeting.

"Good afternoon, Glorfind–" He broke off as his passing glance turned into a double take. His eyes widened and his mouth dropped open. The books he carried tumbled out of his hands and fell on the floor. Erestor stood gaping like a fish for a full thirty seconds while Glorfindel's face gradually became redder and redder with barely-suppressed rage. Finally, as the stand-still stretched on, Erestor burst into wild laughter, causing several more heads to peer around corners and door-frames, and their owners erupted into hastily stifled laughter as well.

"All I ever see you doing around here, Erestor," Glorfindel sniffed, "is laughing like some drunken bar fly!"

Erestor couldn't answer for his helpless laughter. Glorfindel hissed in inexpressible embarrassment and frustration and stalked away to go and find to twin demons.

/\/\/\/\

"Get back here, you _DEMONS_! Get back here!"

Ttwo small children flew pell-mell down a flight of stairs, scrambled to their feet, and kept on with their wild flight down the hall. One might wonder why the two were speeding away with such gleeful and fearful faces until one sees what is chasing them.

A tall elf, noble by face and strong of frame, came sprinting into the garden after them, and he would be a completely terrifying sight to behold were it not for his bright cherry-red hair streaming behind him.

Elrohir and Elladan squealed with mingled fear and giddiness as Glorfindel chased them all around Imladris. They had pulled off their best and most successful prank yet with the transforming of Glorfindel's golden hair into something that might have come out of a cookbook.

The twins scampered up a tree, for this escape had worked last time. Glorfindel had learned his lesson, however, with the incident with the last time he had crawled into a tree after them.

Coming to a halt, Glorfindel peered peevishly into the tree. Then, without saying so much as a word, he plopped down at the base of the tree, waiting for the twins much like a hunting dog waits for a treed fox. The twins looked in horror at each other. They were trapped!

/\/\/\/\

It was nearly sunset before Glorfindel fell asleep below the tree. Elrohir and Elladan threw sticks and leaves onto him to make sure, then made their careful way down the tree. Once Elladan had freed his foot from the fork of two branches and hopped down to join Elrohir, they made to run off, but before they had taken so much as two steps, they felt a strong hand seize each of them, and in horror, they turned to look piteously into the face of Glorfindel.

Without speaking, he dragged them inside and prepared their dinner in silence. Without speaking, the twins ate dinner, casting doe-eyed looks at their keeper. Glorfindel said nothing.

When they finished dinner, he took them to their rooms and dressed them in their pajamas. Without speaking, he set off to the door. With wild cries and a bursting into tears, the twins flung themselves after him.

"Please!" they begged, "We're sorry! We'll make it better! Please don't eat us or tell Ada!"

Glorfindel was highly amused to find that their fear of him eating them was ranked right up there next to his telling their father. Masking his amusement, he looked upon them gravely.

"I don't know," he said finally, "your Ada might need to know about this."

"Please! NO!" Elrohir wailed. "We'll clean our room! We'll eat our whole dinners! We'll do anything!"

Glorfindel appraised them, and he could see them squirming. "Very well," he said, "but here is what you must do in order for me not to tell you father."

As he began to tell the twins the welcome-home 'gift' that he had though up for Elrond, he saw their eyes light up. The prank was childish, he knew, but it would be very worth the effort. And besides, the red hair didn't seem to be going anywhere, so he would need someone to share in his misery.

As he left the twins' room, he ran into Erestor again, whose mouth twitched, but he thankfully didn't start laughing again.

They chatted idly on the way back to Glorfindel's room, and Erestor bid Glorfindle good-night once they arrived there.

"Good night, Caranfin," said Erestor, eyes sparkling with mirth. "I am looking forward to tomorrow. Your experience with the twins has been bringing only joy to my life."

Erestor was laughing ot hear Glorfindel's mutttered comment as the latter closed his door.

"Not for long it won't be the only thing, my normal-haired friend. Not for long."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\


	4. Wednesday

Read and review, as always. Thanks, for those of you who have stuck with me.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

**One By One**

_By Caelhir_

_Chapter Four: Wednesday_

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

**Day Four: **_in which Glorfindel becomes an impromptu potion-tester and the twins discover hide-and-go-seek._

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Elrohir and Elladan were sitting next to each other at the side of a small boiling cauldron, which they had found in their father's store. They were pleased with their discovery, for it was exactly the right size in which to make their potion.

Now Elrohir handed a clump of interesting-looking berries to Elladan. They were basing their potion off of several large books which they had pilfered form the library of Imladris. Neither of them could read but it made for a more professional appearance as they pretended to consult the large volumes as they had watched healers do countless times.

Elladan tossed the berries in and both elflings leaned over the pot to watch the potion turn from pink to bright blue in a matter of seconds.

"What _were_ those berries, 'Rohir?" Elladan asked his brother, leaning over the potion so far his nose nearly touched the surface.

"I don't know," said Elrohir, a frown furrowing his small brows. "I just thought they looked nice, 'Ladan."

Both elflings regarded the potion with a curious intensity that belongs only to the very young children who are too young to be bothered by facts or rules. Elladan picked up a handful of something without looking at it and dropped it into the pot. It splashed satisfyingly.

"I think someone needs to test this," said Elladan after a while. "You know- just to make sure it's safe to eat. I mean, drink."

"Good plan," said the young Elrohir. "But who should be the person who drinks it?"

Both elflings fell into intense thought. Both heads snapped up at the same time as they turned to each other and cried,

"_Gah-lor-uh-fun-dull!" _They both picked Glorfindel at the same time, deciding he would be the one to ingest the concoction.

"Careful!"

"I _am _being careful!"

"You're _spilling_ it!"

"I am not!"

"You are so!"

"Are not!"

"Are so!"

"Are not!"

"Are so!"

"What in all of Arda is going _on_ in here?"

With identical gasps, Elrohir and Elladan whipped around to the door, keeping their grips on the pot tight.

It was Glorfindel. It was not the normal cheerful Glorfindel, though. This Glorfindel looked tired and ruffled. His new red hair stood on end and he looked _mad_.

_Like a chicken after we've been chasing it!_ Thought Elrohir gleefully, and he and he brother shared a giggle as soon as Elladan picked up on the thought of his brother.

When they had expended their mirth, Glorfindel still stood looking suspicious and a little annoyed.

"I asked you two a question," he said firmly. "And now I expect an answer."

Glorfindel had woken in a towering temper. He had opened his eyes to find stormy rain clouds gathering outside his window, which meant that the twins would cooped up inside with him all day, or at least until the worst of the storms had passed. He had also made the mistake of looking into the mirror, which meant that he saw his cherry-colored hair again.

Needless to say, this had started his morning off in a very bad note.

Now he had walked into a room to find the demon-beasts arguing over some pot of soup that they had made, and he just didn't care that much right now. They were to have breakfast, and maybe he could hand them over to Erestor for a while.

Glorfindel tapped his foot on the ground, waiting for the twins to explain what they were doing. Elrohir gulped and said,

"We're cooking, _Gah-lor-uh-fund-ul_."

"Yeah!" piped up Elladan. "Baking! That's another way to say cooking! Bake! Bake! Bake!"

Glorfindel rubbed his temples wearily. It wasn't even barely past sunrise, and already he had a headache brewing. How was he to make it through five more days, including today, until Sunday, when Elrond and Celebrían would be back? He turned his attention back to the twins, who seemed to by trying to decide something.

"What?" he asked irritably. They shifted.

"Nothing," Elladan said, fidgeting, "but we wanted you to try this soup we baked! Bake! Bake! Ba–"

"Quiet, or he'll get mad again!" Elrohir hissed. Elladan stopped his gleeful "bake-ing." Glorfindel eyed the pot warily.

"Perhaps with breakfast," he said warily. "But only if you two eat a good breakfast–"

Before he could complete his request the twins had shot off, carrying the pot between them, vanishing in the direction of the kitchen. Glorfindel glared at his red hair.

"I smell trouble," he told it irritably.

_It's not trouble you're smelling, _he reminded himself, wrinkling his nose as he began to clean up after the twins' "baking" attempts. He picked up empty jars and bottles, wondering just what the twins had put in that foul concoction. He decided, as he left the room, that he didn't want to know, because then he wouldn't want to drink it. Then the twins would be _unbearable _for the rest of the day. Well, more so than usual, anyways.

He made his way to the kitchens, and helped to the twins get breakfast. Or rather, he helped several disasters from happening at once, for that was closer to the truth.

Elladan had nearly knocked over the milk pitcher onto Elrohir's head as Glorfindel walked into the kitchen, and Elrohir, diving out of the way, and crashed into the table, causing the pot they had made to wobble dangerously and nearly topple off the table. Glorfindel had caught it, steadied it, and the milk pitcher, and the twins to boot. He turned to the twins and together, he found himself with two eager helpers for the preparation of breakfast.

Surprisingly, he actually found that Elrohir and Elladan were quite helpful. They worked efficiently as a team, and he enjoyed making a meal with them. They sat at the table, and that was when the trouble started.

Elladan and Elrohir finished their breakfasts quickly and looked at Glorfindel pleadingly. He sighed.

"I suppose you want me to drink that foul stuff now?"

They nodded eagerly. Glorfindel sighed heavily, and, praying to the Valar that he would be granted a painless death, pulled the concoction closer.

It smelled good, at the very least, a little like berries, he thought. It looked like mud, though._ Great._ Glorfindel closed his eyes and tipped the lumpy contents of the goblet back. The twins squealed excitedly.

/\/\/\/\/\/\

Erestor glanced out of the window as he strolled down the hallway. He had just finished working on a rather lengthy project– organizing a section of the library so that the messes that young elflings always made were no longer present. He smiled.

It was day four of Glorfindel's new job, and he was doing remarkably well, Erestor thought. The twins were usually unbearably tricky, but this time they seemed to be better than normal.

At least so far, Erestor thought wryly, a smile lifting the corner of his mouth.

He wandered towards the kitchen, intent on getting something to eat. He had been up nearly all night with the library-cleaning, and was positively starving now. He stretched his arms and continued to amble slowly in the direction of food.

He paused as a strange sound reached his pointed ears. As he drew closer to the kitchens, it seemed that a choking, hacking noise was emanating from the place. Erestor wrinkled his brows and moved a little faster. He hoped no one was choking on their breakfast: it would somewhat cause him to lose his own appetite if the first thing he did regarding food in the morning was clean up some that had recently been inside someone else. The very thought turned his stomach.

Erestor made to push open the door, but before he could, he was blasted out of the way as the door seemed to explode outwards at him. Erestor landed on his behind on the ground with a painful _thump_, and he looked up to see, to his not-so-very-great surprise, little Elrohir and Elladan, standing with wide eyes that grew even wider at the sight of their teacher sitting on the floor rubbing his backside.

"Hello, boys," he said, grimacing as he hauled himself to his feet. "What are you doing?"

To his astonishment, the boys burst into tears.

"Gal-ora-a-fun-dell ate!" Elladan sobbed.

"And then he _fell!" _Elrohir wailed.

"And now he won't wake!" the twins bawled together. Erestor stepped lightly past them, and they turned to follow him. He pushed open the door and gasped, rushing inside as the twins began to cry louder.

Glorfindel lay on the ground, eyes closed, face grey-blue. He was utterly still; his chest did not rise and fall. Erestor leapt into action, titling his head back and peering into his friend's throat. He saw no object, but knew that it could be there just the same.

Erestor swung himself over Glorfindel's prone form so that he straddled his legs. Placing the heel of his hand above Glorfindel's navel and lacing the fingers of his other hand with into his other hand, he delivered a set of short, rapid presses to his unconscious friend. He leaned down and listened for breath.

Nothing.

Erestor repositioned himself so that he was to the side of his friend now, and, refusing to think what he was doing, he covered Glorfindel's mouth with his own and breathed twice for his friend. He repeated this cycle twice more until he lowered his mouth to his friend's once more and heard a weak voice.

"What the _hell_ are you doing?"

Erestor started and looked up at Glorfindel, whose eyes were now open and staring in shock and a slight bit of fear for his friend's sanity. Erestor smiled.

"Saving your life, that's what. You were choking to death. Do you remember what happened?"

Glorfindel sat up slowly, still looking cautiously at Erestor. His eyes widened.

"Those little _beasts! _Where are they? I'll kill them both!" He leapt to his feet, and there was a scramble by the door as Elrohir and Elladan fled for their lives. Glorfindel grinned as Erestor stood as well.

"That should keep them out of your cherry-colored hair for the rest of the day," Erestor commented slyly. Glorfindel groaned as he examined a chunk of his vibrant hair.

"Couldn't you have let me die?" he said hopelessly as he ran his fingers through the bright red strands.

"Oh no," Erestor said brightly. "I want to hear what Elrond will have to say about this. Oh, and by the way, I was supposed to remind you: Elrond wants to send a report to King Thranduil about your patrols and whatever it is you do out there in the wilds. Something about the Shadow's influence outside of Greenwood?"

"Oh. Oh, yes," Glorfindel said in a somewhat stressed way. "Yes, I'll get that to you as soon as I can. You know, I hope I wasn't ever this tricky towards the many elves who baby-sat me when I was an elfling. If I was, and I don't die before then, I'm going to find ever single sone of them in Valinor and apologize profusely."

Erestor laughed and asked, "What did the twins do this time, anyways?"

Glorfindel snorted as well.

"Oh, they brewed up some foul concoction. I've really no idea what was in it, but I must have gotten a chunk of something stuck in my throat. There were a lot of lumps on the bottom of the glass. It didn't taste too bad, you know. Fruity. No, no," he said as Erestor gave him a sardonic look. "Remove the lumps and put some alcohol in it and I think they're on to something!"

"Well, no drinking on the job!" Erestor said. "Now go find those twin demons and make them know that you're not going to murder them!"

Glorfindel laughed and jogged away down the hallway.

/\/\/\/\

Elrohir and Elladan, however, had no intention of being found.

They had disappeared into the ventilation tunnels that ran all throughout Imladris inside the walls of the Last Homely House. They had vanished into the narrow winding tunnels and were now huddled in a small room that was secret to all but the twins and their mother, who often came on "picnics" here with them. They clung to each other and sat silently until Elladan broke the silence.

"We've really don it now, haven't we, 'Ro?"

"We're gonna get _killed, _Dan," Elrohir moaned into his brother's shoulder. The brothers sighed and looked around.

"It's not too bad," said Elladan. "To live down here. We will have to get food sometimes, but Mama can bring us that when she comes for picnics."

"But Mama isn't coming back 'till _forever!_" Elrohir cried. "We'll _starve!"_

The brothers began to sniffle again, and then, at the thought of starving to death on the secret tunnel, they began to cry again.

/\/\/\/\

Glorfindel frowned. He had checked all of the twins' usual hiding places: under the beds, in the stables, in closets, in offices, under desks, in cabinets, in trees, and buried under toys on their playroom, and they were nowhere to be found. It was going on evening, and they had been missing since midmorning.

He had run into Erestor again and had asked for help searching, and Erestor in turn had enlisted all the novice warriors, with Glorfindel's permission, of course.

The house of Elrond was in uproar.

/\/\/\/\

Elrohir and Elladan, meanwhile, had decided to return to their room.

"We can make Gal-lor-a-fun-dell a 'sorry' present!" Elladan said excitedly.

"Yeah!" Elrohir agreed, "but we'll make it better than the juice we made him this morning! I don't think he liked it much!"

They returned to their room and set to work, gluing beads, string and shells to pieces of paper, childlike dreams coming true as they worked.

Finally, just as the sun began to set, they both sat up straight.

"Done!"

The door burst open. They whipped around to see none other that Gal-lor-a-fun-dell himself stood their, looking exhausted. He stared at them for a moment, then rushed forward and without a word, scooped them up into a hug.

The twins looked in surprise at each other over their red-haired keeper's shoulders. Was this his new way to kill them? _Hug_ them to death?

Glorfindel set them down and simply looked at them. Finally, he said,

"I though I'd lost you two."

Elrohir giggled.

"We weren't lost, Gal-lor-a-fun-dell! We knew where we were the whole time!"

"Yeah!" said Elladan, "We weren't lost!"

"Then where were you?" Glorfindel inquired. The twins fell silent and glanced at each other. Glorfindel sighed.

"Fine. So long as you're here now, that's what matters." He turned to lead them to the kitchen for dinner.

"Wait!" Elrohir cried. The twins turned and grabbed their "sorry" picture and ran to Glorfindel's feet. Elladan handed the picture to him. He looked at it.

"What's this for?" he asked in a bemused way. Elladan _humphed._

"It's a '_sorry present,''_" he said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world and anybody could see that. Glorfindel sat down and the twins scrambled into his lap so they could explain their picture.

"See," Elrohir said, "that's me, and that's Dan, and that's you with–"

"–with regular hair!" Elladan finished, "and there's us running away when you had red hair!"

Glorfindel smiled.

"And here," Elrohir continued, "this is when we put frogs in your bed! That;s the frogs hopping around and thats you yelling that word you taught us!"

Glorfindel chuckled at the sight of his paper counterpart hopping up and down swearing.

"And this," Elladan said, pointing at what vaguely resembled a kissing couple, "is Erestor kissing you!"

Glorfindel sat up straighter.

"He was not, er, _kissing _me, boys. I was choking on that drink you made for me for breakfast!"

The twins looks told him that they didn't believe him in the slightest bit. They shrugged and continued explaining their picture.

"Here's you running around yelling at us, and this is–"

"That's us hiding in our picnic spot!"

Glorfindel stared at the picture, and began to laugh. Slowly at first, but growing louder and louder until he was practically howling with laughter. Elladan and Elrohir glanced at each other with faint concern. was he crazy?

Glorfindel calmd down and stood up, the twins standing as well.

"That's excellent boys," he said gently. "I'll put that on my bedroom wall, hmm?"

The twins squealed excitedly and clapped their hands.

"Does this mean you like us now?" Elrohir asked happily. Elladan grew silent as he waited for their answer.

"Of course I like you, you little crazies!" Glorfindel said. "Now go to the kitchen and get dinner! I imagine you're starving, and I have to tell Erestor to cal off the search!

At the mention of "starving," the twins burst out of the door and raced down the hall, delighted looks firmly on their faces.

"They're not so bad, are they?"

Glorfindel jumped as Erestor entered the room. Glorfindel smiled.

"No," he said. "No, they're all right. I think things will be smoother from now on. Look at what they made for me."

Erestor drew closer to the picture, and he pointed at the lip-locked figures, one with bright red string for hair and the other with a black feather as hair.

"What is that?"

Glorfindel laughed.

"That's _us,_ you idiot! They must have seen you trying to resuscitate me, and thought we were canoodling!"

The laughter that ensued could be heard in Valinor.


	5. Thursday

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

**One By One**

_By Caelhir_

_Chapter Five: Thursday_

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

**Day Five: **_in which Glorfindel becomes an unexpected ally, Elrohir and Elladan learn about colors, and Erestor gets his comeuppance._

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The incident with the potion and the drawings had become a hilarious memory overnight, and even Glorfindel could be coaxed into a smile if he was in a good mood.

Which he was.

For now.

Elrohir and Elladan were taking a nap, worn out by their antics of the morning. They had been overwhelmingly relieved that Glorfindel had not been killed by their concoction, or that he had not been furious at their drawings of him choking, dying, and kissing Erestor.

Of course, it wasn't as if Glorfindel was ever going to let anyone see those drawings. (not for a very long time, at least).

Glorfindel walked down the hallway, thinking up various ways he could make good on his promise to the boys to plan a good revenge-prank on Elrond when the elven lord returned home.

_Nothing that will cause damage, _he thought. _Well, not __too__ much damage. We have all of eternity to clean up, after all._

He cast through his memories to see if there were any pranks that had been played on _him_ that would be perfect.

_Pushed in the pond... set on fire... covered in ants... itching for a week... went bald... _The list stretched on, but there was still no easy answer to his dilemma. He found himself at the library, and went inside to see if Erestor had any ideas.

He heard a snorting, choking sound, and, faintly concerned, peered through a bookshelf to see Erestor, clutching the edge of a table and staggering with laughter as he looked at the picture of himself and glorfindel "kissing," so artfully drawn by the tiny hands of Elrond's sons. Glorfindel rolled his eyes and stepped into sight.

"Erestor."

Erestor looked up and burst into renewed fits of hysterical laughter. Glorfindel rolled his eyes, trying not to laugh at the simple _memory_ of the ridiculous drawing. He approached the table and picked up the picture. Erestor's snorts subsided into coughs and streaming eyes.

"So," he said, still snickering a bit, "what do you want?"

"I wanted to know if you remember any good pranks that we ever pulled, either on each other or on someone else, that would be good to use on Elrond when he returns home," Glorfindel said. "I promised the boys I'd think of something better, but I haven't."

"Why don't you try dying and getting Elrohir and Elladan to tragically misconstrue it as a picture again?" said Erestor, unable to stop the giggles and snorts of laughter. Glorfindel smacked him upside his head.

"Ouch!" the other exclaimed. "Sorry, sorry. I'm thinking. What about when we put ants in Elrond's bed?"

"No good," said Glorfindel. "I already thought of that, and don't you remember how that backfired?"

"Oh, yes," said Erestor, all traces of laughter wiped from his face now, "and I remember it took me days to finish picking ants out of my–"

"And I thought of the time we put buckets of water on all the doors," said Glorfindel hastily, not wanting at all to relive the unpleasant ant experience, "but I thought that seemed a little juvenile and predictable, don't you?"

"Yes, yes," said Erestor distractedly. "I– oh this is ridiculous," he said, shaking his head and snorting with laughter again.

"Can't you get over that yet?" Glorfindel asked, somewhat irritated.

"It's not the picture, _Caranfin_," said Erestor, covering his eyes with his hand, "it's your stupid _hair! _I just can't take you seriously like that! You look like something might have come out of a jar of cherry preserves!"

As Erestor collapsed into laughter again, Glorfindel crossed his arms mutinously and glared at the helplessly laughing librarian.

_Fine, _he said in his head, turning sharply on his heel and striding from the library, Erestor's snorts echoing behind him. _If you can't help but laugh at me, then you throw your lot in with Elrond!_

/\/\/\/\

"Glorfindel!"

"Glorfindel! We're awake now!

"Glorfindel, we're ready to play a joke on Ada and Nana!"

"What's the joke, Glorfindel?"

"Yeah! What's the joke?"

Glorfindel let his chair fall to the floor with a _bang_, tapping his fingers together.

"Well," he said slowly, "do you remember what you did to my hair a few days ago?"

The twins nodded hesitantly, not sure if Glorfindel's smile was maniac enough to mean he was happy or deranged and about to snap and kill them.

"I was thinking: what if we made everyone's hair a different color?"

The twins' jaws dropped simultaneously. Glorfindel choked on his coffee just to see their identical looks of open-mouthed delight. Then Elrohir frowned.

"But how will we get all the colors?"

Elladan frowned too, and their faces were identical once more.

"Yeah," he said, "I don't know how to make anything besides red."

The twins looked utterly dejected as they deflated before GLorfindel, who grinned broadly.

"Come now, you two!" he said merrily, "don't you think I've been alive long enough to know how to make a few colors?"

The twins looked up, thier eyes shining.

"You've been alive _forever," _breathed Elladan.

"I bet he knows how to make _all_ the colors!" said Elrohir excitedly.

Glorfindel smirked. Erestor could laugh at his red hair all he wanted, but how would he look with a nice vivid shade of–

/\/\/\/\

"–_GREEN?"_

Glorfindel, Elrohir and Elladan snorted as Erestor, hidden from their view (but not their hearing) by the bathroom door, stepped from the bath looked in the mirror, and promptly discovered his new hair color.

Silently, Glorfindel motioned for the twins to follow him. Together, they traipsed back to Glorfindel's room. His room had become Elrohir and Elladan's new favorite hideout, which, Glorfindel was surprised to find, didn't actually bother him that much.

When they had filed in and shut the door, the three elves, one very tall and very literally red-headed, two very small and dark-haired, looked at each other for a full ten seconds before all three of them collapsed on the floor, laughing their heads off.

"His hair," choked Glorfindel, "is _green!"_

"Did you hear how he yelled?" Elrohir gasped in delight.

"He's going to be so _mad!" _Elladan giggled helplessly.

Together, the three laughed themselves into a sleepy stupor, Elrohir and Elladan snuggling up against Glorfindel's side. He looked down at them. They weren't so bad, really, once you got on their good side. Maybe all it took was an impromptu change of hair color...

Which reminded him...

"Up you get!"

He scooped up the children, who jerked form their reverie and shrieked with glee as Glorfindel hoisted them above his head and carried them into the bathroom.

"What are you doing!" Elrohir laughed as Elladan continued to shout. glorfindel set them down and sat on the edge of his bathtub.

"You learned how to make hair dye," he said, "and you've given everyone in Imladris a new hair color. Except for..."

Elrohir and Elladan looked puzzled as they tried to think who they had missed. Glorfindel looked from one to the other, and laughed.

"Yourselves!"

Elrohir and Elladan's eyes brightened as they remembered that they themselves still had normal hair.

"So," Glorfindel continued, "I saved two helpings of hair dye for you. All you have to do is pick your colors!"

The twins went into transports of delight at the idea of changing their hair. Finally, after a serious consultation between the two of them, Elrohir turned to Glorfindel.

"I want orange!" he said, "Really bright orange!"

"Blue" said Elladan, clapping his hands in happiness. "Blue hair for Elladan!"

Glorfindel grinned as he set about washing the twins' hair and applying the dye.

He knew now for certain, as if it was as fact written in one of Erestor's (green-haired Erestor) books, that he would never, ever, for the rest of the ages and elven lifespans, be asked to watch anyone's children, ever again.

/\/\/\/\

Thank you for staying with me as RL takes its deadly toll on my life.


	6. Friday

Instead of studying for end-of-semester exams, I've decided that a year and seven months is long enough to keep my faithful readers and reviewers on tenterhooks for a new chapter. I do heartily apologize for the extended wait– the transition to college and the following year resulted in a lot of ups and downs for me, and writing took a back seat. Fortunately, my writing has gotten incredibly better than it was back in '09 when I started here (Four years already?!). I am in the process of revising and editing all my stories since I can't even read more than a paragraph without cringeing.

And so, it is with great pride that I present:

**Chapter Six: Friday**

_In which Glorfindel, Elladan and Elrohir play outlaws and hide from the recipients of their mischief-making._

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

_Dammit._

Glorfindel wondered if it was too late to sail to Valinor today. It was only around ten 'clock; if he rode hard….

He backed further into the wall, though, like the marble that it was, it did not budge. It merely stood, blocking his escape by any means but the window, which was a absolutely 'no' since it was a good twelve feet to the ground, and Glorfindel preferred his legs to be unbroken.

Which could be a problem, he thought, as all of these people look as though they don't much care for my preference.

For indeed, advancing slowly upon him was a crowd of elves, mingled looks for fury, embarrassment and anxiety on their faces, expressions which mixed comically with their hysterically-colored hair, ranging from dark violets and blues to vibrant, electric greens and unnaturally bright yellows.

At the head of the pack stood Erestor, the one with the most vivid lime-green hair. His face bore exasperation and a no small amount of irritation.

"Glorfindel," he said, "I would expect this from Elrohir and Elladan alone, but why you had to get involved and act like a child right along with them… Why on earth would you ever think this was a good idea? We all have lives to live, people to meet, and places to go. If we send envoys to a human town looking like this–" he gestured around at the assembled people (Glorfindel tried and failed to reign in a wayward snort of laughter), "–they'll not only laugh us off the face of Arda but they'll never take us seriously again! We will lose all credibility and respect that it's taken us thousands of years to earn. What have you got to say for yourself?"

_That it was so worth it, just to see the looks on everyone's faces? That it was what you all deserved for laughing at me? That it made Elladan and Elrohir laugh?_

Glorfindel sighed. As much as he loved hearing the twins laugh, a realization he had come to when it was not he who was that target of their laughter, it was no excuse for behaving so childishly. He opened his mouth to explain, but–

CRASH.

Down the hall and around the corner, something huge broke. Everyone turned around, and Glorfindel saw is way out. Edging carefully along the wall, he managed to get past the edge of the throng of people before turning and high-tailing it away down the opposite hallway. He slipped as he careened around the corner, and almost ran down two elflings, one with bright blue hair and the other with vibrantly orange locks, who were crouching just beyond it.

"Aaah–! Elrohir, Elladan! What are you doing?"

"Did you like our escape plan?" Elladan said, eyes shining widely as he looked up at Glorfindel. Elrohir nodded vigorously and waited for his answer. Glorfindel looked back around the corner to where the crowd was moving in the direction of the noise, then quickly back at the twins.

"That… that was you?" They nodded eagerly. "What the h– er, what on earth did you do?"

"We pushed over a big jar," Elladan said.

"No, it was a pot," Elrohir argued.

"Jar!"

"Pot!"

"Jar!"

"Pot!"  
"Shhh," Glorfindel said, ushering them farther down the corridor to the stairs to go up to their playroom. "Was it a vase? It's kind of like a jar and a pot mixed together," he explained as they gave him blank looks.

"Yes," Elladan said. "It was a vase. A big one."

"And we got behind it," Elrohir said, so eager to keep monitering Glorfindel's reaction that he kept tripping up the stairs, "and pushed it off the thing it was on."

"And it was loud," Elladan said, rubbing one tiny pointed ear, "and it hurt my ears, but it made people look. Then we went down there the other way and waited for you."

"Did you like our escape plan?" Elrohir asked again.

Glorfindel reached the top of the stairs and looked at the two little elflings. "Yes," he said finally. "Thank you for rescuing me."

_Ah, what's the harm?_ he thought.

The harm, it turned out, was that the vase the twins had broken was several thousand years old, priceless, and had been a gift from Galadriel and Celeborn for Elrond and Celebrían's marriage. But right now, Glorfindel was more concerned about finding sanctuary from the angry crowd that buzzed around the bottom of the staircase.

"I'll tell you what, you two," he said to the twins. "Would you like to play a game?"

"I love games!" Elladan squealed as Elrohir screamed excitedly.

"A quiet game," Glorfindel amended, rubbing his ear. "We're going to go to your playroom, and then I'll explain the game all right?"

They reached the playroom, and, checking to make sure that no one was coming down the hall, Glorfindel shut the door.

"Now," he said, "here is the game we are going to play. Have you ever read the story of Olorion the Outlaw?" When the twins nodded eagerly, he went on. "Good. Remember how the nasty old count was always trying to capture him and put him in a dungeon? But he always used his bow and arrow to steal the count's money and give it to the poor elves in the village?" The twins were nodding so hard that Glorfindel thought their heads might roll off their shoulders. "Well, we are going to play a game like that. You two and I are the outlaws, all right? And Erestor and the rest are the count's soldiers. We have to hide from them."

"Why do we have to hide?" said Elladan doubtfully.

"Because the count doesn't like having colorful hair," Glorfindel said. "They want to put us in the dungeon, and we have to hide, all right?"

"This sounds like a great game!" Elrohir said excitedly. "Let's play, let's play, let's play!"

"All right, all right," Glorfindel laughed. "Now, who wants to stand the first watch?"

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Several hours later, with two stealthy, separate trips to the kitchen for provisions, the twins had fallen asleep as they lay together on the floor of the play room. Glorfindel sat sprawled against the wall near the door, watching them.

How those two can look so peaceful what they're asleep yet be such monsters when they're awake, he thought, but his heart wasn't really in it. These two weren't monsters at all. Actually, once they let him in on their games and pranks, they were delightful company, for being so young.

Glorfindel sighed and closed his eyes. It was Friday already. Only tomorrow and Sunday morning left until Elrond returned, and had to wear that dress for all of Monday. Glorfindel smiled. For this week to have gone well so far (minus his brief death and the alteration of hair color of every resident of Imladris), Elrond would be paying quite a hefty price indeed.

/\/\/\/\/\/\

BANG BANG BANG.

"GLORFINDEL! I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE. COME OUT HERE RIGHT NOW!"

Glorfindel shot upright before his body was entirely awake. He staggered and fell against the wall, scrabbling for purchase before he hit the ground again. Righting himself, he looked over to where the twins were staring at the door, wide-eyed. Creeping over to them, he put a finger to his lips.

"That's the count," he said, recognizing Erestor's voice. "He finally tracked us down. We need an escape route again."

Elrohir's eyes shone. "I know one!" he said. He scrambled to his feet and scurried over to the wall, where he jumped to pull on the bracket of a torch. The wall shifted, and spun on an axis as it opened up to reveal the dark, drafty passageway within.

"Perfect," Glorfindel breathed. "Come on, little outlaws! We've got to run away!"

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"Where are we now?" Glorfindel asked again. Every stone in this unending passage looked the same to him, but Elrohir and Elladan could have been born and raised her for as well as they knew the way.

"Almost outside," Elladan said. "Look, see that rock? It means we're almost there."

Glorfindel looked and saw the rock Elladan indicated. Slightly discolored and standing out from the wall further than its neighbors, Glorfindel could see why it made a good landmark.

A few minutes later, they emerged from a small door, child-sized (Glorfindel hit his head on the jamb) onto the side of the hill into which Imladris was tucked.

"Amazing," Glorfindel said. "That was incredible."

"It's our favorite," Elladan said.

"Yeah, but we can't do it very much," Elrohir said. "Mama and Papa get worried when we disappear, and then the guards get in trouble for letting us out, but they don't even see us go."

"I can see how that would be a problem," Glorfindel said, more to himself than the twins. "So" he said, turning back to them, "now what? What do the two outlaw leaders say to do now?"

They began to walk as Elladan and Elrohir spouted ideas for their outlaw lives. They walked aimlessly through the trees, Glorfindel keeping an eye on the darkening sky. He frowned at the clouds; they looked like more than simple rain.

Before the twins could respond to Glorfindel's question about a new hideout, thunder cracked like a whip and rain began to pelt down on them. Elladan screamed and Elrohir clung to Glorfindel's leg like a burr.  
Glorfindel picked them both up, one in each arm, and began to walk quickly as he could towards Imladris. The rain began to come down harder, and Glorfindel mentally swore, angry that he had not thought to bring any cloak.

It began to hail, and Glorfindel began to run. Thunder rumbled ominously, followed by bright branches of lightning that crackled through the sky. The twins were both crying now, and Glorfindel pushed his legs to go faster.

Finally, he burst from the trees in plain sight of the front doors to Rivendell. Crossing the remaining distance as quickly as he could, he tried to shield the twins from the worst of the hail. Taking the front stairs three at a time, he turned at the top and slammed into the doors with his back to force them open. He had forgotten, however, that from the outside, these doors opened outwards.

He bounced off the doors with a thump, and nearly squashed Elrohir and Elladan as he fell forward. Rolling just in time, he accidentally snorted a hailstone up his nose as his face turned to the sky. Elrohir and Elladan fell on top of him, and he wheezed.

Getting to his feet, he pulled the twins into him for shelter, and pulled open the doors.

"Inside," he told the twins, "go!"

They needed no further invitation, and shot inside like a mouse into its hole upon seeing a cat. Glorfindel followed them, and soaking wet and freezing cold, led the twins hurriedly upstairs, where he drew a warm bath for the bedraggled elflings.

Afterwards, Glorfidndel wrapped them in fluffy towels and put them in their bed. Dozing peacfully by the warmth of a fire, they looked peaceful and safe to Glorfindel, but he felt a nagging guilt that he had brought them outside with no thought for the weather.

Elrohir looked up at Glorfindel.

"Gah-lor-a-fun-del," he said, eyes half-closed, "that was the best day ever."

Glorfindel thought his heart might burst.


	7. Saturday

Happy New Year! Thank you all for the kind reviews on the last chapter, and thanks as well for those who followed and favorited One By One; it seems that not everyone has abandoned this story completely, and for that, I thank you.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

**Chapter Seven: Saturday**

_A quiet one, in which Erestor begs for mercy and Glorfindel realizes that his term as caretaker is drawing to a close._

Glorfindel laid still in his bed, hands clasped behind his head, breathing in and out, in and out, in and out. Pale grey light swam in through the windows, and he could hear birds chirping and whistling outside the window. The window was cracked open; the scent of damp earth and plants after last night's storm lingered in his nostrils.

Something moved against his side; he blinked, yawned and looked down at his side.

Elladan shifted again and stretched a little from the ball he had been curled into, head propped against Glorfindel's chest. Elrohir, on Glorfindel's other side, remained still as a sleeping cat. Glorfindel looked at their sleeping faces; there was a feeling that he couldn't put into words about the way sleeping children looked. He had babysat cousins, nieces, nephews, and the children of his good friends throughout the years, and for a unexplainable reason, he loved the remarkable peace that he found on their small faces in their slumber. There was light and joy and mischief during the day, but when they slept, they looked so blissful and angelic. Innocent. Untroubled by the world.

A knock sounded at his door, and carefully, so as not to disturb the sleeping twins, Glorfindel extracted himself from his bed and made his way to the door as whoever it was out there knocked again.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," he muttered. Opening the door, he was presented with the still-comical sight of Erestor, lime-green hair and all. "'Morning, Erestor. What can I do for you?"

Erestor frowned at him. "Were you sleeping?"

"Yes."

"Why are you wearing clothes?"

Perhaps to an outsider, one who was accustomed neither to Erestor's friendship with Glorfindel nor the previously-golden-haired elf's sleeping habits, this would have been a highly inappropriate question, but to both elves, nothing could be farther from normal.

"The boys slept with me last night," Glorfindel responded. "I was hardly going to– actually, I'm not even going to go there. Our of context, that's a risky thing for someone to overhear. What brings you by here so early?"

"Early? The sun rose almost an hour ago, Glorfindel," Erestor said, raising an eyebrow, "and some of us, that means it's time to get on with what we're supposed to be doing today."

"And maybe for the rest of us," Glorfindel said, raising his arms above his head to stretch a knot out of his back, "the suns' rising doesn't herald popping out of bed and faceplanting into books. I can't 'get on with what I'm supposed to be doing to today' until the twins wake up anyways, so…"

Luckily for Erestor, the twins chose that moment to awaken.

"Gah-lor-uh-fun-del?"

Glorfindel gave Erestor the pettiest, most immature look he could muster in response to the other's smug expression, and turned around, leaving the open for Erestor to walk through and join him.

"Elrohir, did you sleep well?" he asked. Elrohir nodded, rubbing an eye with a small fist. Elladan was awake, but still curled under the blankets. Glorfindel could see his eyes, cornflower-blue, shining brightly.

"I'm hungry," Elrohir said, looking up hopefully at Glorfindel as if the tall elf might suddenly turn into breakfast. Elladan sat up.

"I'm hungry too," he said, echoing his brother. Glorfindel smiled.

"Well, I suppose the only thing that's to be done about that is to go get some food, isn't it?"

Dressing the twins for the day, however, took longer than expected. Each of the twins had different ideas about what colors they wanted to wear today ("I can't wear blue, Gah-lor-uh-fun-del! my hair is blue!") but after a little coaxing and promise-making, Glorfindel managed to get the hungry elflings down to the kitchen, where he and Erestor made them eggs and sausage, sided with fruit, a luxury provided by the late summer.

He nibbled on his own breakfast as well, as did Erestor. They munched on what the twins did not eat while the elflings chattered excitingly about nothing and everything at the same time. Erestor cleared his throat quietly and Glorfindel looked over at him, surprised at the slightly apprehensive expression on the other's face.

"Glorfindel," Erestor said quietly, "listen. I know you're having fun with the twins, playing their games and getting in on their jokes, but enough is enough, don't you think?"

Glorfindel looked around at him.

"What?"

"Everyone is living in fear, Glorfindel," Erestor said earnestly. "When it's just the twins playing practical jokes, it's always harmless. For fun. But when you get involved, well… You can think up things that actually affect the way that we live our lives. Like this thing with the hair. Glorfindel, King Thranduil is bringing his wife and sons here next Friday for a late summer gathering. We'll be laughed from Arda, and then from Valinor as well!"

"Huh."

Glorfindel wished he had known that before he had urged the twins to dye everyone's hair. Guilt pricked at him.

"I'm sorry Erestor. Of course you're right. I'm sure Elrond can do something about the hair; I for one will not be spending the rest of immortality with hair like this." He lifted a strand of his hair and let it fall through his fingers. "I'll see to it that we don't

"Gah-lor-uh-fun-del?" Elrohir said suddenly, "can we have a picnic today?"

"Yes!" squealed Elladan, "can we? Can we?! A picnic! A picnic!"

"I suppose," said Glorfindel, after a moment's hesitation. "I don't see why not. It's looking to be a beautiful day, after all."

The twins erupted into screams of delight, clapping and laughing.

"Wait, Gah-lor-uh-fun-del," Elladan said, "wait, wait, can Erestor come with us?"

Elrohir said nothing but turned to stare at Erestor with wide, hopeful eyes. Glorfindel raised his eyes to meet Erestor's. He lifted an eyebrow.

"Well? Can Erestor come with us on our picnic?"

Erestor hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "Certainly I can. I'll just need to let Indilwen and Erethien know that I won't be in today. They can manage without me for a day."

An hour later, the four elves, two very small, with respective orange and blue hair, one very tall with cherry-coloured tresses, and one a little shorter with lime-green locks, were walking down the steps of the Last Homely House. They would have been out the door sooner if it hadn't been the the debacle that was packing their picnic. Elladan wanted sandwiches, and Elrohir wanted dried fruit and nuts. Then Elladan wanted porridge, until Glorfindel explained that porridge didn't travel well, at which point he decided he wanted to go fishing and catch their lunch. Elrohir chipped in with a suggestion of hunting their meal. Glorfindel was at the point of eye-rolling, hair-pulling-out frustration when Erestor calmly suggested bringing a sandwich for Elladan and dried fruit and nuts for Elrohir, and Glorfindel nearly kicked himself for not thinking of that solution before.

They began to walk along a path. Glorfindel, perfectly acquainted with the forests surrounding Imladris, decided to take a wide, well-traveled path that did not stray far from home. It looped around for a mile or so, just far enough for a couple of small elflings and their caretakers to wander for a few hours before they decided to call it a day.

Going was slow; Elrohir and Elladan wanted to stop every five feet to examine a stump or a rock or a worm or something. A few times they found mud puddles left over from last night's rainstorm, and each time was as if they had never seen such a wonderous thing before. It was Erestor and Glorfindel could do to avoid the twins getting completely covered in mud from head to toe. Eventually, Glorfindel gave up and joined them in the puddles as they stumbled upon them, stomping merrily into muddy patches and lifting the twins out of them when they waded to far in and got stuck. Erestor staunchly refused to stoop to such levels as puddle-jumping.

They stopped for lunch a little while later. Elladan and Elrohir were miraculously still satisfied with their choices for lunch. They spread out a blanket and set up their little picnic. Elladan and Elrohir chattered constantly about the sun, the trees, the sky, Glorfindel's hair, Erestor's nose, Elladan's shirt, Elrohir's hand, bugs, birds, cats, dogs, horses, and even Greenwood the Great (which at this time was nothing more than a faraway fairytale land to the young elflings).

Erestor, far from Arda's most outdoorsy elf, was looking around with slight bemusement on his face as he simultaneously took in the sounds and sights of nature and listened to the twins' never-ending flow of talking, while Glorfindel laid back on the grass and closed his eyes, letting his charges' chatter flow around him.

Saturday. One full day left of taking care of the twins. He could scarcely believe that it had been almost a full week already.

_We should plan one last perfect prank, _he thought._ One that we can get away with. Not like the hair, but something better. Something more… clever, more well-thought out._

He tried to remember the stories he had heard throughout his life of the best pranks, practical jokes and mischief from his friends and family members, but the life of a twice-born elf is long, and after several thousand years, some memories do tend to blur together somewhat.

_Was it Illiri who painted a pig and let it roam the halls? No, wait, or was it a cat that was painted? A sheep? No, the sheep was shorn and… What ever happened to the sheep? Did Oroniel ever figure out how to get the chickens out of the ceiling? Or was that Thirien? No, Thirien propped buckets of water on doors. He was a terror for a while, but then Unoeth decided she could outdo him, and between waxing the floors and greasing the stairs, she almost killed everyone doing so…_

He sighed and chuckled at the mixed memories that floated back up to him, swimming through thousands of others. His cousin Unoeth's pranks had been hilarious to watch but painful to experience firsthand, and Thirien's were harmless but also too passive to merit any real fear. He would have to think more to come up with a prank that would leave every member of the House of Elrond quaking in their shoes and flinching at rays of sun.

After a while, Elladan and Elrohir began to yawn and threaten falling asleep outside, so Glorfindel and Erestor packed up the picnic, and, each nestling a sleepy elfling over one of their respective shoulders, carried their small charges back to the house.

After the twins were asleep (in Glorfindel's bed; they refused to sleep anywhere else), Glorfindel walked with Erestor to the library, wanting to see his friend safely back in his element among books and scrolls.

"Can't see why you enjoy being trapped by paper, Erestor," said Glorfindel, propped in the doorframe.

"Shut up, Glorfindel," said Erestor absently.

"Say, Erestor," Glorfindel asked nonchalently, "you don't happen to have any old records of various activities around here, do you?"

"There are the ones that Taurîen used to keep," said Erestor slowly. "He was the old scribe here before he sailed."

"Are they thorough? Detailed?" Glorfindel tried to keep his motives shielded. "Would they have information about past– ah, things like parties, and guests, and– misdemeanors and the like?"

"The ones I'm thinking of painstakingly chronicle every little thing that happened here," Erestor chuckled. "They are the ones that make me look as lax and lazy as a cat in the sun. I swear to you, that elf was more uptight about keeping records than I could ever hope to be. I hate to think what he would say if he suddenly returned from across the sea to check on the goings-on here." He laughed again. "Sure I have them. They're right over here."

He led Glorfindel to the back of one of the towering shelves of books and scrolls, where the oldest manuscripts were kept.

"I think… ah, yes, ehre you are. Daily Records of Events and Activities at the Last Homely House. Here's Volume I."

"And," Glorfindel said, peering down the shelf, "volumes two through… ah, what's that one say? What?! Holy– nine hundred and ninety six?!" He gaped at a laughing Erestor. "There are nine hundred and ninety six volumes of this stuff? All the same records?"

"Aye, they are. I said he was thorough, did I not?"

"You are thorough, mellon-nín. This Taurîen fellow, he is insane! Almost a thousand volumes–" he picked one of the books off the shelf and showed it to Erestor, "–each at least a thousand pages themselves? This isn't being thorough, this is being crazy!"

"You did ask," Erestor reminded him. "What do you need these for, anyways? You've never been interested in history for your pleasure reading. You like the sword-fighting high adventures."

"As much as you like history," Glorfindel responded. "And I was just wondering about a few things, but if it means I'll have to sort through a couple hundred thousand pages of–" he cracked open the book– "yes, tiny, tiny handwriting, then perhaps I'll stick to my usual stuff."

Chuckling, Erestor turned and bid him good luck on his quest. Glorfindel slowly let out a breath of air.

_Dear Valar,_ he thought. _Is a good prank worth this much reading? _He rolled his eyes, though in a humorous way._ If it's a really, really, reeeally good one, yes._

He wondered where in all of Arda he was supposed to start.

"Does it matter?" he muttered, nestling the one he already held, Volume Seventy-Eight, against his chest and pulling a few more off the shelf at random. It was a pet peeve of Erestor's. He could hear the librarian's voice in his head already: "Glorfindel, if you take one more book off the shelf and put if back somewhere it does not belong, I will skin you!"

He chuckled and started reading.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Oh boy oh boy. This next chapter is going to be a fun one. Watch out, Rivendell.


End file.
